From 5 to 9 December 2024, the International Gender Champions Secretariat hosted a series of online capacity-building workshops on gender equality in digital governance, focusing on the human rights implications of artificial intelligence (AI). Facilitated by Caitlin Kraft-Buchman, Co-Founder and CEO of Women at the Table and Co-Founder of the <A+> Alliance for Inclusive Algorithms, the sessions explored how to integrate human rights and gender-responsive principles into digital governance.
The programme began with an introductory foundation module, “The Relevance of Human Rights to AI,” offered on 5 and 6 December. Caitlin Kraft-Buchman led the sessions, investigating how AI systems can infringe on human rights and identifying points in the AI lifecycle where bias may arise. In these sessions, the risks associated with gender-neutral - rather than gender-responsive - approaches to digital governance were examined, highlighting how these approaches can unintentionally reinforce existing inequalities.
The bonus module, “A Human Rights-Based Approach to AI Development,” held on 9 December, delved deeper into the AI lifecycle, focusing on the various stages where bias can emerge and offering strategies to integrate equity and inclusion. Discussions centred on the importance of embedding human rights and gender equality principles into the design and regulation of digital technologies.
Throughout the sessions, key challenges such as the digital gender divide and the rise of technology-facilitated violence were examined. The role of AI in perpetuating and challenging societal stereotypes was also addressed, with a call for more inclusive standards and gender-responsive public policies.
These sessions were made possible by a grant from the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the UN and other International Organisations in Geneva.